Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a versatile accessory holder for a barber chair. In particular, the invention relates to a plate configured to be adapted to attach a tray to hang at least one compartment for accessories to any one of a plurality of barber chairs.
Background
Hair styling can involve the use of many tools, including scissors, clippers, clipper guides or guards, clipper blades, razors, combs, brushes, and creams. Different hair types, different skin sensitivities, or different customer preferences as to hair styles may require the use of different tools or even different sizes or gauges of the same tool. Also, typical hair styles require different lengths for different areas of the scalp: shorter on the sides, longer on the top, for example. It is known to use both scissors and clippers for many haircuts or hair styling operations. When clippers are used, it is known to utilize different clipper guards or guides, guide combs, or different blades altogether. Clipper manufacturers such as OSTER® or WAHL® provide different standard sizes of these tools for given hair lengths.
Barbers may generally use clippers with exchangeable blades, such as those offered by OSTER®. In those systems, the clipper blades are exchangeable corresponding to different lengths of hair remaining once used. For example when an OSTER® Blade Size 1 blade is placed on the clipper, hair having a length of 3/32″ would remain. When an OSTER® Blade Size 1A is placed on the clipper, hair having a length of ⅛″ would remain. In contrast, under the WAHL® system used by many stylist professionals, the clipper blades remain static and, instead, blade guides or guards are switched out based on the length of remaining hair desired. For example, when a WAHL® “number 1” guard is placed on the clipper, hair having a length of ⅛″ would remain. When a WAHL® “number 5” guard is utilized on the clipper, hair having a length of ⅝″ would remain. In each of these systems, by utilizing the different exchangeable blades or guards in different areas of the client's scalp, a barber or stylist may create and produce desired haircut.
Also, it is known that many stylists and beauty operators prefer to utilize even more blades throughout the day. A blade, sometimes referred to as a blade set is known to include the cutting blades and guide blades, as disclosed in the currently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/099,631 by Morono Hodge, entitled “Apparatus and Method for Customly Calibrating a Cutting Blade Set for a Hair Clipper” filed Dec. 6, 2013, incorporated herein in its entirety. That patent application describes a novel apparatus that allows a user to customly set a distance between the cutting blades and guide blades of any commercially available set of hair clippers. In any given day, a barber may need to utilize a dozen or so blades or cutting guards. Having to stop, go to the barber station, and switch blades or cutting guards on the clipper wastes valuable time and is inconvenient. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a way to allow an operator to easily reach several blades or cutting guards throughout a haircut and throughout the day.
During the haircutting operation, therefore, it may be necessary to change blades or cutting guards multiple times. Further, it is often desirable to change entire clippers, or sets of clipper blades during a given haircut, or for cutting hair of multiple clients. It further is often desirable to change other tools during a haircut, such as barber combs. It is known that there are different types of barber combs, such as the barber comb disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,800,572 to Morono Hodge, entitled “Fixed Point Barber Comb and Methods of Use,” filed on Feb. 19, 2013 and issued Aug. 12, 2014, incorporated herein in its entirety.
One specific challenge to many stylists and barbers is the ease of exchanging barber tools while the client is in the barber chair or styling chair. For example, for a single customer, a barber may want to use both a clipper blade or cutting guard that provides a sensitive cut for facial areas and also a clipper blade or cutting guard that provides a smoother cut for scalp areas. Similarly, for a single customer, a barber may want to use both a clipper blade or cutting guard that provides a close cut for sideburns and also a clipper blade or cutting guard that leaves slightly longer hair for a given area of the scalp, and longer hair in another area of the scalp. In order to use two different types of clipper blades or cutting guards, a barber would need to store those blades or cutting guards on a counter or in a drawer and step away from his or her customer to exchange the appropriate clipper blades or cutting guards. Such an action may be time intensive and may appear disorganized to the customer. This problem becomes even greater should the barber need to use three or more clipper blades or cutting guards on a single customer. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a chair tray attachment plate for stylist or barber tools so that the barber may access the clipper blades or cutting guards from the back of the chair rather than step away to change between tools.
Further, it is known that there are a plurality of barber chair types. For purposes of the present discussion, these types may generally be categorized by the type of headrest attachment that each employs. Some barber chairs, such as those provided by TAKARA BELMONT® under the name Elegance use a single tongue opening in the chair back to attach a headrest utilizing an appendage such as a tongue, the headrest tongue being insertable into the opening in the chair back. Other barber chairs may utilize two pin appendages on the headrest adapted to be inserted into two openings in the top of the chair back. It is known to those in the art that different chairs may have the openings at different locations on the chair back but that the matching headrest would feature pin appendages at the matching location on the headrest. For instance, chairs by Mingjian Beauty Hairdressing Articles Firm marketed under the model number M121 have openings and appendages spaced in one configuration, while some antique chairs by KOKEN® have openings and pins spaced in a second configuration.
It is desirable to provide a chair tray attachment plate that is adaptable to fit multiple types of barber chairs, regardless of appendage, such as pin or tongue, positioning. Moreover, although a barber chair is used as illustrative, one of skill in the art would realize that this disclosure also applies to styling chairs and applicant is using those terms interchangeably, as would one of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, references to barber chairs also include styling chairs.
Several attempts at providing a chair tray for stylist or barber tools are known. For example, the approach of Fowler described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,828 utilizes a tray attachment to the back of a barber chair. Fowler's attachment is secured utilizing a screw-down mechanism on the back of the chair, and the attachment mechanism also extends to the front of the chair where it may interfere with the customer's seating position or comfort. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,305 to Dlouhy et al. describes a sterilizer tray that is built into the back panel of a barber chair and which would not be compatible with existing barber chairs that do not have a recess in the chair back. U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,716 to Danner describes a hairdresser's chair tray attachment that has a back-mounting mechanism that is not conducive to maintaining compatibility with a headrest. U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,908 to Crayne discloses a barber chair accessory mount that extends from the piston portion of a barber chair and, thus, may not be compatible with all types of barber chairs, such as non-hydraulic barber chairs. U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,940 to Anderson et al. discloses a chair attached tray, but the tray of Anderson is attached to the armrest rather than the back of the chair, which may be less convenient for stylists or barbers as compared to a backrest tray. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0248531 to Powell discloses a mountable salon chair tray whose mounting mechanism suffers from the same pitfalls as Fowler's.
In each of these approaches, either the customer's comfort and/or seating position is potentially compromised or the apparatus is not adapted to work with a plurality of barber chair types. None describe a versatile accessory holder to hold accessories, such as clipper blades, that could be utilized with multiple barber chair types.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a versatile accessory holder adapted to fit a plurality of types of barber chairs or styling chairs. It is further desirable that the attachment mechanism be simple to install and capable of holding a plurality of barber or stylist tools, such as clipper blades.